Wednesday, 15 February 2012

The Great Cheese Heist

While looking through an archive of some old local newspapers, I came across this small news item in the Bristol Mercury for October 10th 1820. It tells of a robbery where three men, armed with bludgeons, stole a quantity of cheese from a shop.

It's fairly unremarkable, except I started to wonder about the circumstances of the crime. Did they go into the shop with the idea of stealing money, only to find the till was empty. Perhaps then they decided, since they'd come all this way and didn't want to go home empty handed, to demand that the shop-keeper hand over some cheese instead. Using the gruffest, most threatening voice you can use when stealing cheese, of course.

Or maybe the cheese was their target from the beginning. In which case, I imagine the three of them running down Lower Castle Street, lungs bursting with excitement because they've got the cheese!